Her indoors, as Arthur Daley used to call his missus in Minder, has a point.

When local councils have been axed because Environment Minister Phil Hogan reckoned they were an unnecessary strain on the tax-payers’ purse, it’s right to wonder why there’s still lots of dosh for an explosion of Atlantic Way signs.

For a while I shared my missus’s financial concern.

Believe me, that’s a rare enough event.

Then I spotted a table-full of Yanks in a little-known restaurant so hidden away that I’m not going to reveal its location here.

It’s one of my favourites, and I don’t want it overrun with tourists.

Yet the last time I was in it, there was a Spanish family sitting at a table across from the Yanks In fact, most of the 20 or so other people there that evening were strangers.

This little cove doesn’t usually get that many strangers.

Last year they wouldn't’t have a clue about it or where to find it.

So I made a few inquiries and guess what I discovered?

Quite a few of the strangers were following the Wild Atlantic Way signs and finding little gems rarely located by visitors before this year.

In the North-west of Ireland we moan a bit about how tourism chiefs underline the attractions of Killarney and Connemara and forget about the much more beautiful mountains in Sligo like Ben Bulben and the hills of Donegal and its magnificent long beaches like in Rossnowlagh.

But now the visitors to the south-west and west are spotting the Wild Atlantic Way signs and are starting to follow them northwards.

Lissadell House and Gardens (Photo: http://www.lissadellhouse.com/)

So: memo to her indoors!

For once, Failte Ireland which I have often accused of over-hyping their value to the nation, seem to be doing something right.

I have changed my mind about the Wild Atlantic Way, which I originally suspected might be one more Failte Ireland white elephant.

It’s not! It’s the business!

It is sending tourism money where it is badly needed – to the north-west.

The timing couldn’t be better, either.

Lissadell House in Sligo, abandoned for the past four years as a tourism draw, is opening again this week.

Believe me, very soon it’s going to be the star of Failte Ireland brochures overseas.

Visitors will be zooming up the Wild Atlantic Way to find it.

Oh, how near we were to losing it.

Owners Eddie Walsh and his wife Constance Cassidy, who lumped €13 million of their own money into buying and refurbishing it since 2004, were so close to cutting their losses and running because of a stupid row with Sligo County Council prompted by campaigners who argued they had the rights of way through the estate and straight past the Walsh family front-door.

So bitter did the row get that, even when the Walsh family won a €10 million court battle, they were still considering getting out of Lissadell.

Eddie Walsh hadn’t set foot on the estate for three years until 12 days ago, he was so uptight about the row.

Thank heavens for his children.

His seven youngsters, who missed Lissadell so desperately, managed to persuade him to have a serious re-think.

Even then, he wasn’t prepared to decide anything until next year at the earliest.

Then, forgive me for blowing a little trumpet for this column, he read the craic dated April 3 which said nothing more than that there was enormous support among ordinary folk for what he originally planned for Lissadell and people still hoped something could be salvaged from the unholy mass created by Sligo County Council.

Mr Walsh this week admitted it was a major influence on his decision that Lissadell will be reopened to the public this Friday.

Before visiting was stopped to Lissadell in 2009, and before it was entirely closed to the public after the Leonard Cohen and Westlife concerts in 2010, the place was attracting 40,000 visitors a year.

My money is on that figure doubling within 18 months, partly through Lissadell’s place as the major attraction on the Wild Atlantic Way and partly because when the concerts start again it will be Europe’s best outdoor arena.

Is there a better way to remember Countess Constance Markievicz, the 1916 heroine who was born there, and WB Yeats, the poet who so often visited the house?

Instead of the kick in the backside the Walsh family received from Sligo County Council, maybe the renewed hand of friendship will see them getting what they truly deserve.